Monday, March 20, 2017

Evie: 10 Months



DOUBLE DIGITS.

Y'all. We are only two months shy of my precious girl turning one. I feel like time is just flying full speed ahead and there's nothing I can do do stop it!

BIG NEWS this month--she can have all dairy now! We have transitioned her to Enfagrow Formula which she is doing great with and plan to switch her to milk right before her first birthday. She can also eat yogurt and cheese now which is so nice!

It's been an eventful month for our family. If you've been following along, with my blog we listed our house for sale last November in hopes of moving into Fort Smith to be closer to our new church. Well, we SOLD it and officially signed the contract on Friday, March 10th! We are so excited and now we are praying for God to lead us to the next place he has for us. We really want to be smart with our finances and know that God already has the perfect place in mind for us.

*Aunt Hannah came down for a day and we took her to the park! It was Evie's first time in a swing and needless to say, she enjoyed herself. Both of the kids had a blast! We all love her so much and we are so glad she came down!




*We have had absolutely BEAUTIFUL weather this last month! We never had much of a winter, which is fine by me, and the kids and I have been loving the outdoors!



*Sweet thing is teething her top teeth pretty hard core, bless her heart. Combine that with spring allergies, and she's had a little bit of a rough time the last couple of weeks.

*She wants to walk SO BAD. But she's still kind of tentative and nervous to actually take any steps on her own. That surprises me a little, but she will get there.

*This girl LOVES her brother! It doesn't matter what he does, she just thinks he hung the moon. Lately, their new thing is Holt "plays" the guitar and she just claps and claps for him. There has also been a few mornings where they'll spend 30 minutes just talking to each other from their cribs. One morning, I heard Holt tell her "Evie, you're so silly!" Melt. my. heart.






Weight: 16.5-17 pounds (complete guess since we don't have a scale)
Height: 27 inches (20th percentile)

Feeding: she LOVES food! And she really just wants to feed herself---independent little thing. She eats a scrambled egg for breakfast every morning, and has just about eaten everything we have put in front of her--chicken, beef, green peas, green beans, pancakes,waffles, muffins, noodles, black olives, carrots, corn, bananas, strawberries...anything! She is starting to refuse baby food altogether, except pouches, so we just basically feed her what we eat. She has significantly cut down on her bottles as well---she maybe drinks 16 oz a day. Mostly she drinks 3-4 oz at a time throughout the day. And YAY she can have dairy now! Our new formula is much cheaper too--PRAISES. Thankfully we only have a few more weeks of buying formula before we transition to whole milk. I'm trying to start implementing sippy cups and so far she does pretty well. Holt was completely off bottles at this point, so hopefully by next month she will be off them too.

Sleeping: She still does well sleeping all night (hallelujah) but she has been waking up pretty early--between 6 and 6:30am. It would be fine if she was happy when she wakes up, but instead she just cries until we come get her. Inevitably, this wakes up Holt, who would probably sleep til 7:30AM if he could, so its been a bit of an adjustment for everyone. I'm hoping this time change helps her start sleeping a little later! She takes 2 naps a day--a morning catnap at 9AM and a longer afternoon nap at 12:45/1:00PM. She does great with putting herself to sleep just like her brother.

Milestones: She can free stand for several seconds now! She also has started cruising a little around the couch and coffee table. Plus, she lOVES to hold someone's fingers and walk around the house. It won't be long before we have another walker in the house!

Schedule:

7AM  6 oz bottle (usually she drinks 4-5 oz of it)
8AM  breakfast--scrambled egg, muffin, waffle, etc
playtime
9AM--naptime (usually 30-45 min)
playtime
11/11:30AM  lunch--PB sandwich, ham, cheese, pouch, puffs, fruit, etc
playtime
12:30PM  bottle (usually takes 2-3 oz)
12:45/1PM  nap time
3:30PM snack
5PM  dinner--usually whatever we are having
6:30PM  bath, pjs, nighttime bottle (usually 3-4 oz)
7PM  bedtime

Photo Dump:














Saturday, March 11, 2017

Holt: 2.5 years



Our little man was officially 2.5 years old on February 7th. HOW???

"the days are long but the years are short."

UMMMM, yeah.

This boy. Goodness y'all, my heart just feels like it could BURST from the love I have for him. He is smart and kind and funny. He loves BIG and is a joy to be around. He is very logical and literal (which gives way to some hilarious phrases and situations) and would rather do whatever an adult is doing than play with toys. He loves to learn, loves to "help": make coffee or cook or wash dishes or feed the dog or take out the trash. He has a servant-hearted spirit already and we hope to foster that as he continues to get older. When he wants to be held, he comes up and says "mama, hold you!" He is very independent and wants to do everything by himself--"no, MY do it!" (i love how he says that). He isn't a big cuddler at all (he never has been though, even as a baby) so if he asks me to sit by him on the couch, I drop whatever I'm doing and go sit and soak up the fleeting moments of cuddles he is willing to give me. He has started pushing boundaries and as a result we have had to change our discipline tactics. Some days I feel like all I do is discipline, but then he will just run up, give me the biggest hug and say "hi mama" and I melt into a puddle and completely forget about how mad I was just 2 seconds ago. He has the most beautiful curly hair and big brown eyes. He has the most contagious belly laugh and it instantly makes your day better.

*LOVES lawnmowers (and vacuums)---he got 2 play lawnmowers for Christmas


*can sing several songs by memory: itsy bitsy spider, ring around the rosy, holy holy holy, jesus loves me, wheels on the bus, you are my sunshine, ABC song, good morning God (BSF), old macdonald had a farm, this little light of mine
*made up a song: happy birthday today
*favorite movies/TV shows: Daniel Tiger's neighborhood, Magic School Bus (thank you Netflix), Finding Dory, Cars, Fox and the Hound, 101 Dalmatians
*loves to watch home videos on my phone (trying to do better of taking more of them)
*potty trained and in pull-ups for naps/nighttime




*MDO Tuesday/Thursday and BSF Wednesday



*has an EXTENSIVE vocabulary and speaks really well
*he has started learning that people have middle names and can list several--Holt Parker, Evie Elizabeth, and our best friends---Lorna Marilyne, Letty Renee, and Layla Dacie.
*my parents and I took him to a Razorback football game in Little Rock back in September--he STILL talks about seeing the band and watching the game





*he has an AMAZING memory--he still remembers events or things that happened from Summer 2016! He also remembers people very well--if he meets you once or twice he WILL remember you!
*In October, Daniel accepted a position of Associate Pastor at a church in the Fort Smith area. Holt hasn't skipped a beat. He has made this transition so seamlessly, it's like he has been at this church his whole life. He loves his Sunday School class and he instantly made new friends. Plus, he absolutely loves our pastor and his family. If you missed it, you can read all about it HERE
*Thanksgiving 2016--he especially loved the pheasant and deer and continues to ask to go back to Sno-lic.





*Zoo Day---we took the kids over to the Tulsa Zoo back in October for a day with our best friends and Holt still talks about how he needs to go back.










*Christmas 2016--he loved Christmas this year! He understood more of what was happening and got really good at opening presents ;) Since we had our house on the market, we didn't get out as many decorations so next year I'm hoping to remedy that. He also didn't really understand Santa, which is fine with us. Yes, we will do Santa a little bit but we are not pushing. I found a blogpost about how this family handled Santa with their kids and we plan to do the same READ HERE
Also, this next Christmas I plan to start Advent and get a few more Christmas books.














*Night Terrors during the night and naps--these started when Evie was born. we have gone through cycles--for a while we were down to only 1-2 times a night of screaming/crying and then it will escalate to 5 or more a night. We are continuing to pray God's protection over him and asking for the Lord to guard his mind as he sleeps. Thankfully he is still a great sleeper, but I know it's not as restful as it could be. We visited with our pediatrician about this---they suggest it possibly could be an issue with large tonsils and adenoids. Although I don't necessarily hope for surgery, I do hope this could be the answer. It would be a quick fix and he could get back to his normal sleeping habits. We may meet with an ENT in the near future.
*starting to play pretend and use imagination more---EX: driving the truck to work or to get donuts, playing in the kitchen and cooking, pretending he is mowing, pretending like he's sleeping
*interacting with sister more--loves to play peek-a-boo with her








*can list friends and where we see them--"school" friends, church friends, etc.
*fascinated with music and instruments--especially pianos and guitars


*we have noticed this about him since he was a baby, but he has a huge interest in taking things apart, seeing how they work, and putting them back together. he is very hands on, is curious about everything we do, and loves to learn. I am so interested to see how his interests develop as he gets older and what he decides to do as a career--maybe an engineer?
*loves to help make coffee, help cook (especially stirring), clean around the house, feed Sophie---anything to help!


*knows all his colors
*can recite his ABC's---can only recognize a few letters (his favorite is "o")
*one nap a day--12:30pm to (no later than) 3:00pm
*bedtime--7:30pm
*we haven't necessarily encountered much of the "terrible two's", although I feel like it might be picking up a bit. Over the last month or so, he has really started pushing boundaries and becoming more defiant. We have started a new method of discipline with "standing in the corner" and it seems to be pretty effective so far. Sometimes, it feels like we discipline ALL DAY LONG and others we hardly have to discipline at all. Trying to keep in mind it's worth the hard moments now to have a well behaved kid as he gets older.

Weight: 31.8 lbs (75th percentile)
Height: 36 ¼ inches (60th percentile)

Get ready for a massive photo dump!